Our Bureau
Ahmedabad
As per the reports, on this Monday, September 15th, a sanctioned tanker carrying Russian crude oil was seen nearing the Mundra port of the Adani Group. It suggests that the vessel became one of the last blacklisted vessels to unload at the conglomerate’s facilities.
According to the data extracted from multiple sources, the Spartan, which is a Suezmax that is carrying at least 1 million barrels of Urals crude, was seen near a discharge point that facilitates HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL). A year ago in 2024, the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) had sanctioned this vessel for helping the supply of Russian crude oil.
A few days back on Thursday, September 11th, the Adani Group had announced that they were banning the entry of all the tankers that were sanctioned by the Western countries at all of its ports. However, after the reports were out a spokesperson of the Adani Group had stated that the ban was effective immediately but won’t apply to the shipments that were already on their way.
In the last eight months, the Mundra port of the Adani Group had received about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude oil, as per the reports. India is also the largest buyer of Russian seaborne oil across the world and relies heavily on the shipments carried by tankers that are sanctioned by the EU, the United States, and the UK.
As per the reports that the ban is going to land a huge blow to two Indian refiners – HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) and Indian Oil Corp. HMEL operates a 226,000 bpd refinery in Bathinda, Punjab, and sources all its crude oil through Adani’s Mundra Port in Gujarat. On the other hand, Indian Oil Corp, the country’s largest refiner, regularly receives Russian oil at Mundra Port.
